With the rapid advancements in the field of printing, newly developed printing techniques are being considered for use in the field of postage dispensing. Heretofore, postage dispensing apparatus, for the most part, have used mechanical components for the purpose of printing postage indicia upon mail pieces. In the recent past, electronic postage dispensing apparatus have been developed, but even these electronic apparatus relied upon mechanical printing components that were in communication with electronic accounting components. Needless to say, such postage dispensing apparatus are relatively expensive. Dot matrix printers have been developed and are commercially available such as ink jet printers and thermal printers.
Many publications have discussed and suggested the use of dot matrix printers in postage dispensing apparatus. In fact, recent changes in postal regulations allow mailers to use ink jet printers for printing certain non critical data on mail pieces. As a result, it appears to be a matter of time before postal regulations are changed to allow more extensive use of non-mechanical dot matrix printers. Of the contemporary printing techniques, the use of thermal printing for a postage dispensing apparatus appears attractive and has been disclosed in a number of articles and patents. The advantages offered by thermal printing is that of low cost and reliability. The one drawback to the use of a thermal printer is that it requires a relatively large and expensive printhead to print all the data required for a postage indicia. Clearly, it would be advantageous if one were able to use a thermal printer without the need of requiring a high amount of space and have the advantage of reduced cost.